These are the best tools I’ve come across to build my online business. I would recommend bookmarking this page for future reference. Every important tool I’ve come across and used regularly to develop my online income is listed below.
Full disclosure! Some of the links below are affiliate links and I will get paid a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra charge to you). However, rest assured that I am ONLY recommending products that I use regularly myself to run and grow my business.
Full disclosure! Some of the links below are affiliate links and I will get paid a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra charge to you). However, rest assured that I am ONLY recommending products that I use regularly myself to run and grow my business.
Domain Registration
Go Daddy - The most popular domain registrar on the web; I host almost my entire portfolio with them (in some cases when I’ve purchased websites, I’ve had to transfer them to different domain registrars, but most of my websites are with Go Daddy).
Hosting
HostGator – The most reliable hosting company on the web. I host my entire portfolio with them, either in a baby account or a reseller account.
Don’t forget to use the HostGator coupone code “lionsclub100″ to get 25% off your entire purchase!
Don’t forget to use the HostGator coupone code “lionsclub100″ to get 25% off your entire purchase!
Free Online Blogs
WordPress and Blogger are the two most powerful free online blogs available online. I would recommend using those websites to make a keyword focused blog of 5-6 posts for each of them. Then I would build 50-100 keyword focused backlinks to both of those free blogs, and send one single in-context link from these blogs to your “money website.” I would do this for every single “money website” that you own that you are trying to increase traffic to. These are some of the most powerful links you can manufacture on your own, to build authority for your “money websites.”
Premium Themes for WordPress
Woo Themes – Woo Themes offers several extremely high quality themes that are available to you once you become a member. I use their themes regularly for my websites and I am currently using the Woo Theme “The Station” on all my individual sales websites.
Elegant Themes – Similar to Woo Themes, Elegant Themes also offers several high quality themes once you become a member. I am currently using the Elegant Theme “TheCorporation” on this website!
Thesis Theme – This is without a doubt the most powerful theme available for WordPress. For most websites I usually use a premade theme from Woo or Elegant, but if I have a very specific project in mind or I am making a website for a client with very exact specifications, I’ll use Thesis.
Elegant Themes – Similar to Woo Themes, Elegant Themes also offers several high quality themes once you become a member. I am currently using the Elegant Theme “TheCorporation” on this website!
Thesis Theme – This is without a doubt the most powerful theme available for WordPress. For most websites I usually use a premade theme from Woo or Elegant, but if I have a very specific project in mind or I am making a website for a client with very exact specifications, I’ll use Thesis.
E-commerce
Shopify – If you are looking for an easy and inexpensive one-stop-shop e-commerce solution, look no further than Shopify. They have tons of attractive themes to pick from (that are fully customizable), a secure shopping cart included, and free hosting with unlimited bandwidth. They’re customer support is incredible too…can’t say enough good things!
Keyword Research
Google Keyword Tool - Before I embark on any new online venture, I do keyword research. This handy tool from Google will give you some of those most important metrics about any keyword online: the total monthly searches, the Cost Per Click of that keyword, and how competitive that keyword is in the marketplace. The best part about this tool is that it is totally free!
Link Building Tools
Build My Rank - One of the best resources available for building strong one-way links. They own an entire network of aged, high pagerank domains for you to link from.
The Keyword Academy – This website is great for several reasons, but the main one is Post Runner. Post Runner is a tool where you can submit articles through an interface, and that article will be posted on one of the websites within the system. These websites are all owned by individuals who take care of their websites, so it makes the backlinks you get very powerful. There are also great webinars that you get access to once you become a member, and an active forum where you can learn about other strategies for making money online.
Unique Article Wizard – I usually only recommend “white hat” SEO products, but this is the one time I’ll recommend something a little more “grey hat.” What this tool does is it takes an article with your backlinks in it and submits it to hundreds of article directories online for you on autopilot. Not only that, every article it submits is totally unique. Pretty cool, right? The negative, though, is that these articles are spun and of low quality (which Google doesn’t like) and submitted to very weak article directories (which aren’t taken very seriously by Google). So why use it? To backlink your backlinks! Use this tool to strengthen your backlinks, but don’t use it directly on your main “money websites.” This is a very powerful technique for improving the authority of your websites.
The Keyword Academy – This website is great for several reasons, but the main one is Post Runner. Post Runner is a tool where you can submit articles through an interface, and that article will be posted on one of the websites within the system. These websites are all owned by individuals who take care of their websites, so it makes the backlinks you get very powerful. There are also great webinars that you get access to once you become a member, and an active forum where you can learn about other strategies for making money online.
Unique Article Wizard – I usually only recommend “white hat” SEO products, but this is the one time I’ll recommend something a little more “grey hat.” What this tool does is it takes an article with your backlinks in it and submits it to hundreds of article directories online for you on autopilot. Not only that, every article it submits is totally unique. Pretty cool, right? The negative, though, is that these articles are spun and of low quality (which Google doesn’t like) and submitted to very weak article directories (which aren’t taken very seriously by Google). So why use it? To backlink your backlinks! Use this tool to strengthen your backlinks, but don’t use it directly on your main “money websites.” This is a very powerful technique for improving the authority of your websites.
Affiliate Programs and Product Distribution
ClickBank – This is the service I use to sell my info products online, including ebooks and video series (every product on this website and the related websites uses ClickBank). They are extremely safe, always pay on time, and have the biggest affiliate network available (meaning other people can promote your products).
E-Junkie – This is another great service for selling digital or tangible products on your websites. It doesn’t have as big of an affiliate network as ClickBank, but it is significantly cheaper. Go for this one instead of ClickBank to sell your products if using affiliate vendors is a smaller part of your overall sales plan.
PayPal – I use PayPal all the time as a simple way to charge people for products or pay my outsourced independent contractors. It also comes in handy for all kinds of miscellaneous financial transactions I need to do when running an online business.
Amazon Associates – If you want to promote actual products on your websites, Amazon offers one of the largest selections of products out there, and they are well known enough that people always trust them. This is how it works: if you were to buy this fantastic toaster, I would get a commission! :)
E-Junkie – This is another great service for selling digital or tangible products on your websites. It doesn’t have as big of an affiliate network as ClickBank, but it is significantly cheaper. Go for this one instead of ClickBank to sell your products if using affiliate vendors is a smaller part of your overall sales plan.
PayPal – I use PayPal all the time as a simple way to charge people for products or pay my outsourced independent contractors. It also comes in handy for all kinds of miscellaneous financial transactions I need to do when running an online business.
Amazon Associates – If you want to promote actual products on your websites, Amazon offers one of the largest selections of products out there, and they are well known enough that people always trust them. This is how it works: if you were to buy this fantastic toaster, I would get a commission! :)
Email Marketing
Aweber – Every internet marketer has read the quote “the money is in the list,” and it’s 100% true. Every single website I own has a sign up screen for a newsletter, and those newsletters increase exposure, conversions, and ultimately, they mean more money in my pocket (speaking of, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter on the right!). Aweber is hands-down the most powerful (and extremely affordable / easy to use) email marketing tool for managing and growing automated mailing lists. DO NOT DISREGARD MAILING LISTS AS PART OF YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY FOR ANY BUSINESS!
Tracking
Google Analytics – Google Analytics is an extremely powerful tool for tracking all traffic on your website(s). It’s pretty much a MUST-HAVE for anyone who owns any type of website and best of all, it’s totally free.
StatCounter – Another free tool for tracking and analyzing all traffic that arrives on your website(s). Between these two tracking programs, you won’t need anything else.
StatCounter – Another free tool for tracking and analyzing all traffic that arrives on your website(s). Between these two tracking programs, you won’t need anything else.
Images
Free photos – If you are using images on your website that you found on the internet, make sure you are using those that are licensed as “creative commons” photos and attribute the photo to the author by linking back to their website (this is so you stay out of legal trouble!). I can usually find most photos I need this way on websites like Flickr or Wikipedia.
123RF Images - If you need high quality photos or a specific photo for a specific purpose, you can find just about anything you need here. Amazing quality photos for a very reasonable price!
123RF Images - If you need high quality photos or a specific photo for a specific purpose, you can find just about anything you need here. Amazing quality photos for a very reasonable price!
Outsourcing
Odesk – An incredible resource for hiring independent contractors from abroad. The interface is extremely easy to use and managing your “employees” is extremely simple. Also, because they are independent contractors instead of actual employees, no paperwork for you!
Virtual Staff Finder – If you want to find high quality virtual assistants and don’t want to go through the (sometimes) long and tedious process of searching, interviewing, etc., this is where you should go. This service is a little more expensive, but if you want to save yourself the headache that those other outsourcing websites can (sometimes) produce, you should definitely use this quick and painless headhunting service.
Fiverr- This website is pretty cool. You can hire people to do things for you for $5. I use this website for logo designs and things like that (since I’m really bad at design projects!), but if you take a look around, you’ll see all kinds of crazy things on there!
Virtual Staff Finder – If you want to find high quality virtual assistants and don’t want to go through the (sometimes) long and tedious process of searching, interviewing, etc., this is where you should go. This service is a little more expensive, but if you want to save yourself the headache that those other outsourcing websites can (sometimes) produce, you should definitely use this quick and painless headhunting service.
Fiverr- This website is pretty cool. You can hire people to do things for you for $5. I use this website for logo designs and things like that (since I’m really bad at design projects!), but if you take a look around, you’ll see all kinds of crazy things on there!
Video Recording Software
Camtasia – This is the software I used to record my entire online video series. EXTREMELY easy to use and completely intuitive. All you do is press the record button and everything happening on your computer screen is being recorded, as well as any sound in the room (in most cases, your voice!).
ScreenFlow 3 – If you have a Mac, go with this product instead of Camtasia. Just as easy to use, but produces higher quality videos.
ScreenFlow 3 – If you have a Mac, go with this product instead of Camtasia. Just as easy to use, but produces higher quality videos.
Safety / Back-Up
Code Garage – I backup all my WordPress websites with this plugin. They do daily backups with storage up to 30 days back, hack scanning, and uptime monitoring. Anytime I’ve had a website go down for any reason, their team has helped me restore my website back to normal in no time. Trust me, when a website that you’ve been working on for years suddenly disappears for no apparent reason, it’s good to have the backup files, as well as a team that’ll help you restore them. They’ve saved me from security hacks, updates that have messed up my websites (usually due to plugin compatibility issues), and plain old me just messing up a website because I tried to mess with the code and screwed something up.
Dropbox - Dropbox is a really cool program where they give you a special folder for your desktop, and anything you place in that folder is saved on a remote hard drive. That means that if you ever destroy your laptop or computer somehow, all those files (documents, photos, vidoes, etc.) aren’t lost forever. On top of that, you can access those files from any other computer by logging into their website. This is how I’m able to run my online business while taking long vacations around the world. 
Dropbox - Dropbox is a really cool program where they give you a special folder for your desktop, and anything you place in that folder is saved on a remote hard drive. That means that if you ever destroy your laptop or computer somehow, all those files (documents, photos, vidoes, etc.) aren’t lost forever. On top of that, you can access those files from any other computer by logging into their website. This is how I’m able to run my online business while taking long vacations around the world.
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